Association between serum cholesterol and eating behaviours during early childhood: a cross-sectional study

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Figure 1:
Recruitment of participants to the study. *TARGet Kids! is a primary care research network in Toronto, Ontario. The network currently includes 7 large group practices, each of which has between 3 and 10 practising physicians.

Table 1:

Characteristics of participants and nonparticipants

Characteristic	No. (%)^*		p value
Characteristic	Participants n = 1076	Nonparticipants n = 780	p value
Age, yr, mean (± SD)	4.14 (± 0.84)	4.13 (± 0.82)	0.7
Sex, male	528 (49.1)	393 (50.3)	0.6
BMI z score, mean (± SD)	0.35 (± 1.01)	0.30 (± 1.07)	0.4
Maternal BMI, mean (± SD)	25.2 (± 4.74)	24.8 (± 4.45)	0.06
Maternal postsecondary education	914 (84.9)	650 (83.3)	0.6
Gestational diabetes	44 (4.1)	26 (3.3)	0.6
Ethnicity with high cardiovascular risk	123 (11.4)	78 (10.0)	0.3
Ethnicity with high metabolic risk	367 (34.1)	240 (30.8)	0.1

Table 2:

NutriSTEP questionnaire responses

NutriSTEP score or subscore	Item mean scores (± SD)	No. of items	Maximum possible value
Total	15.03 (± 6.60)	17	68
Subscore
Eating behaviours	3.81 (± 2.20)	5	20
Dietary intake	7.24 (± 3.39)	6	24
Parental concern	1.41 (± 2.47)	4	16
Screen time^*	0.67 (± 0.94)^*	1	4
Supplements^†	2.02 (± 1.53)^*	1	4

Note: SD = standard deviation.
↵* Dichotomous (≤ 2 v. > 2 h/d); 149 participants (13.8%) reported more than 2 h/d.
↵† Dichotomous (rarely/never v. sometimes to always; 607 participants (56.4%) reported using supplements sometimes to always.

Table 3:

Regression model showing association between serum non-HDL cholesterol level, patient characteristics and nutritional risk subscores

Characteristic	Adjusted^* beta estimate (95% CI)	p value
Age	−0.04 (−0.09 to 0.00)	0.06
Sex, Male	−0.12 (−0.20 to −0.05)	0.001
Birth weight	0.01 (−0.05 to 0.06)	0.8
zBMI	0.04 (−0.001 to 0.07)	0.06
Parental BMI	−0.01 (−0.02 to −0.002)	0.01
Gestational diabetes	0.02 (−0.17 to 0.22)	0.8
Maternal education — postsecondary	−0.02 (−0.16 to 0.10)	0.7
Ethnicity, elevated risk^†	0.07 (−0.06 to 0.20)	0.3
Ethnicity, reduced risk^†	0.01 (−0.13 to 0.15)	0.9
NutriSTEP subscore
Eating behaviours	0.02 (0.002 to 0.05)	0.03
Dietary intake	−0.01 (−0.02 to 0.01)	0.3
Parental concern	−0.01 (−0.02 to 0.01)	0.3
Screen time	0.09 (−0.04 to 0.21)	0.2
Supplements	−0.01 (−0.09 to 0.07)	0.9

Note: BMI = body mass index, CI = confidence interval, HDL = high-density lipoprotein.
↵* Adjusted for all other variables in the Table.
↵† Children were assigned ethnicity based on the highest-risk ethnicity of their parents (see Appendix 2, available at www.cmaj.ca/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1503/cmaj.121834/-/DC1).

Table 4:

NutriSTEP subscores and beta estimates for laboratory indices from our regression models